Boss hopes for reward

Rare start: Rovers Fabien Robert was brought into the team against Palace and impressed in the early stages. Picture: Steve uttley

Neil Goulding
Doncaster Rovers

Published:06:55Wednesday 28 March 2012

ROVERS boss Dean Saunders put on a brave face after his side performed encouragingly well in the capital but still slipped back to the Championship’s basement.

Saunders was impressed with the effort of his charges against a play-off chasing Palace side who had lost just one of their previous 11 games, but only a late, deserved equaliser from sub Chris Brown rescued a point.

And it couldn’t halt Rovers’ slide to the bottom of the table as Portsmouth’s 2-0 home win against Hull City lifted them into 23rd place.

Saunders said: “It’s been a very frustrating night for us. The players have given their all but in the end we’ve had to come back from behind late in the game.

“I can’t fault any of the players, they’ve given me everything once again so we’ll just have to keep digging in and hope our luck changes.

“We’ve got another huge game on Friday night against Birmingham, so we’ll have to give it our best shot again and hopefully this time we’ll get the rewards.”

Freddie Piquionne struck a Palace post in the first half, while El-Hadji Diouf went close before Jermaine Easter broke the deadlock in the 57th minute.